The Holy See will soon publish a glossary of 90 words related to sexual and family issues, according to Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, director of the Pontifical Council for the Family.

The Lexicon of the Family and Life will also clarify the Catholic Church's teachings on birth control, sex education, assisted procreation and homosexuality.

Cardinal Trujillo said the work intends to clarify "neologisms, ambiguous terms and difficult concepts in frequent use."

Those terms include "voluntary interruption of pregnancy", "reproductive health," "matrimonial indissolubility," "sexual education" and "conjugal love". When bandied about in a global forum, they can cause "grave moral confusion", the lexicon states.

"It's long overdue, but it's a welcome initiative to clarify the political hijacking of the language," said William Donohue, president of the New York-based Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. "The Orwellian use of language by the left for their own agendas has been going on for decades," he added.

Cardinal Trujillo told the Italian magazine 30 Days that the family has been threatened by "cultural manipulation" in a world that increasingly affords homosexual and common-law couples the same rights as married couples.

Cardinal Trujillo takes issue with the term "reproductive rights", which he said "is used not to promote the right of reproduction, but the right of abortion. The meaning of these terms is exactly the opposite to their literal meaning."